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5th Annual SymmyS Judges

- Myq Kaplan is a comedian named Mike Kaplan.
He has been seen on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the Late Show with David Letterman, and in his own half-hour Comedy Central Presents special. He has been heard on his albums "Meat Robot" and "Vegan Mind Meld" (which was one of iTunes top 10 comedy albums of the year), his podcast, "Hang Out With Me" on the Keith and The Girl network, and also thousands of other podcasts and things that aren't podcasts. He competed in the recent Pallindrome Fight! live comedy improv show at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival. In addition to being seen and heard, he has been smelled and tasted and touched. In May 2014, his one-hour special, "Small, Dork, and Handsome," debuted on Netflix, and all kinds of other things will probably happen in the future, but bios are mainly about the past. Check out myqkaplan.com for more information, and/or live your life however you choose. Thanks!

Alex Horne is a British comedian, bandleader, TV and radio host, author ("WordWatching"), and Cambridge-trained classicist who of course writes palindromes.

- MC Mr. Napkins (aka Zach Sherwin) is a comedian and rapper based in Los Angeles. His television credits include “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell” (FX) and “The Pete Holmes Show” (TBS), as well as appearances on E!, VH1, and CNN Headline News. He also writes for and performs in the blockbuster YouTube series “Epic Rap Battles of History,” playing such characters as Stephen King, Sherlock Holmes, and Egon Spengler, and he was awarded an RIAA-certified gold record for the “Albert Einstein vs. Stephen Hawking” single. Zach’s own music videos have been viewed millions of times online, and his latest album, "Rap!," was released June 9, 2015 on AST Records. He competed in -- and won -- the recent Pallindrome Fight! live comedy improv show at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival.

Jeff Grant of New Zealand is a longtime palindromist and chronicler of palindromes who has written dozens of articles for Word Ways as well as his own books, including "The Palindromicon," a collection of over 4000 palindromic words, names and phrases (2nd edition published 2002).

- Will Shortz is NPR’s Puzzle Master and the New York Times’ Crossword Editor. He is the star of the documentary film "WordPlay."

- Vince Clemente and Adam Cornelius are documentary filmmakers who are finishing an epic palindrome documentary focused on the second World Palindrome Championship.. Together they produced "Ecstasy of Order," a film about the World Tetris Championships.

- Ove Michaelsen is a musician and wordplay author based in Oakland, California. His books include "Words at Play," "Never Odd or Even," "and "The World Play Almanac." His epic collection of limericks, "Rhymestorming," is available for publication to the rigth publisher.

- Dax Jordan is a Los Angeles-based comedian and actor who has appeared in the first two "Palindrome Figh!" live comedy improv palindrome shows.

- Margaret Malone is a fast-rising literary star. Her dark and very funny debut collection of short fiction, "People Like You," (Atelier26 Books; 2015) won the 2015 Balcones Fiction Awards and was a 2016 PEN/Hemingway Award finalist. Malone’s writing has appeared in The Missouri Review, Oregon Humanities Magazine, Coal City Review, Swink, Nailed, latimes.com, and the Forest Avenue Press anthology The Night, and the Rain, and the River.